249 out

[hiten mitsurugi]

I'll play the devils advocate. We really haven't seen Naruto except for his little bell sparring match with Kakashi. They got the bells really easily. It seems that Naruto hasn't developed mentally. I'd like to see what Jaraiya has taught him. Naruto might hold his own against them.

if(naruto vs itachi){
This is how I see it. If Naruto walks up to Itachi, then goes to kyubi-naruto immediately. Summons the fourth (note: they learned this jutsu from spying on oro and sasuke, they just neglected to bring sasuke back)! The great yellow flash/flicker, or whatever goes straight to work on disembowling Itachi. Naruto then grows chakra admantium claws, throws rasengan fast balls. == Naruto Victory!!!!
}
else
{
Naruto walks up to Itachi and immediately uses kage bunshin. I hope Itachi whops Naruto's head off, because I'm sick and tired of kage bunshin (I'm sure the freaking artist are tired of drawing it too). == Itachi Victory!!!!
}

[Uchiha Barles]

Hiten:

Naruto will never beat itachi. He won't be strong enough to pull that off till near the end of the series, or if he does become strong enough at some point, he won't get the opportunity to kill him, cuz Sasuke's gonna do it. But that's ok, we'll then get to see the Naruto/Sasuke rematch that matters.

And Naruto most certainly did grow mentally. In his previous fights, he never thought about the weakness inherent to an enemy's abilities. This time, he did. Plus, there was that kage bunshin trade off "game" he played with Kakashi at the beginning of the fight, which ended in a stalemate. Seeing as Naruto wasn't made to look like an idiot during the fight, he came up with a strategy to take advantage of a disadvantage in his opponents ability (which he never did before), and did all this using only his trusty kage bunshin, I'd say he grew mentally. Quite a bit.

[hiten mitsurugi]

Originally posted by: Uchiha Barles
Hiten:

Naruto will never beat itachi. He won't be strong enough to pull that off till near the end of the series, or if he does become strong enough at some point, he won't get the opportunity to kill him, cuz Sasuke's gonna do it. But that's ok, we'll then get to see the Naruto/Sasuke rematch that matters.

And Naruto most certainly did grow mentally. In his previous fights, he never thought about the weakness inherent to an enemy's abilities. This time, he did. Plus, there was that kage bunshin trade off "game" he played with Kakashi at the beginning of the fight, which ended in a stalemate. Seeing as Naruto wasn't made to look like an idiot during the fight, he came up with a strategy to take advantage of a disadvantage in his opponents ability (which he never did before), and did all this using only his trusty kage bunshin, I'd say he grew mentally. Quite a bit.

Dunno what you're tallking about, but Naruto sure didn't get a beat down during his last encounter with Itachi. If it didn't happen before when Naruto was really an idiot. It sure isn't gonna happen now, when you said yourself that Naruto has improved.

"Naruto will never beat itachi." That's quite a hyperbole, but judging by your user name, I guess it fits. It's really up to Kishimoto now. I hope he lays all this garbage to rest because when Naruto becomes Hokage; I don't want to hear any, "but Naruto never beat Itachi." That's why Naruto can not become Hokage until he beats his enemies. After Naruto beats Itachi, Sasuke will say,"hey, that Naruto beat the hell out of my brother. If he can do it, then I can too." Naruto once again helps Sasuke out with his life long goal. If it does't work out that way, then right when Oro is about to take Sasuke's body, Sasuke makes a last wish. " I don't care if you take my body, I just want you to kill my brother with it." You know, kinda like how he inhabited his latest body.

[Uchiha Barles]

Originally posted by: hiten mitsurugi

Originally posted by: Uchiha Barles
Hiten:

Naruto will never beat itachi. He won't be strong enough to pull that off till near the end of the series, or if he does become strong enough at some point, he won't get the opportunity to kill him, cuz Sasuke's gonna do it. But that's ok, we'll then get to see the Naruto/Sasuke rematch that matters.

And Naruto most certainly did grow mentally. In his previous fights, he never thought about the weakness inherent to an enemy's abilities. This time, he did. Plus, there was that kage bunshin trade off "game" he played with Kakashi at the beginning of the fight, which ended in a stalemate. Seeing as Naruto wasn't made to look like an idiot during the fight, he came up with a strategy to take advantage of a disadvantage in his opponents ability (which he never did before), and did all this using only his trusty kage bunshin, I'd say he grew mentally. Quite a bit.

Dunno what you're tallking about, but Naruto sure didn't get a beat down during his last encounter with Itachi. If it didn't happen before when Naruto was really an idiot. It sure isn't gonna happen now, when you said yourself that Naruto has improved.

"Naruto will never beat itachi." That's quite a hyperbole, but judging by your user name, I guess it fits. It's really up to Kishimoto now. I hope he lays all this garbage to rest because when Naruto becomes Hokage; I don't want to hear any, "but Naruto never beat Itachi." That's why Naruto can not become Hokage until he beats his enemies. After Naruto beats Itachi, Sasuke will say,"hey, that Naruto beat the hell out of my brother. If he can do it, then I can too." Naruto once again helps Sasuke out with his life long goal. If it does't work out that way, then right when Oro is about to take Sasuke's body, Sasuke makes a last wish. " I don't care if you take my body, I just want you to kill my brother with it." You know, kinda like how he inhabited his latest body.

Well, just to clear up any misconceptions you might have about my opinions arising from my user name, I'll this. My favorite character is in fact naruto. Hands down. The sharingan is my favorite bloodline limit, thus the Uchiha in my user name. Now, Naruto sure didn't get a beatdown last time he encountered Itachi. I can't argue that, but allow me to point out a few things about that "encounter". For one, it got interrrupted...twice. Sasuke came in, and then jiraiya came in. When Sasuke came in, Itachi beat him down pretty badly in what is, in my humble opion, the most hillarious beatdown ever. He did it easily too. Then, when Jiraiya had had enough with the comedy, he decided to take on Itachi and kisame, but they escaped his wrath. When did Naruto actually fight Itachi in that encounter? I guess you can say that it happened when he summoned the kyubi chakra, but it took less than a second for kisame to own him with his chakra eating sword. Naruto did nothing else, and more importantly, nothing was even attempted against Naruto starting from the point that his chakra was eaten. Naruto got out of that because Sasuke delayed Itachi and Kisame long enough for Jiraiya to get there. If it wasn't for Jiraiya, that would've been it for Naruto.

About Naruto not beating Itachi now, well, I'm just going with the flow of the story. There's no way that Naruto gained enough power in three years to all of a sudden be able to beat itachi. This is just a guess mind you, but think about it. Even if he did gain a lot of power, Itachi likely did too. Itachi was only 17 at the time of the first encounter, so he has plenty of time to grow in strenght still. Furthurmore, although this has been said a zillion times, for the sake of the story, Naruto cannot be the one to beat Itachi. It has to be Sasuke. First off, I doubt Sasuke is going to get his body taken over by orochimaru. My prediction is that either Itachi or one of the Sannin will kill Oro. Sasuke losing his body to orochimaru would take too much away from our (as in the audience) belief in what Sasuke's will is, and that theme has been too big in the story to just do away with in that fashion. Second of all, what would happen if Itachi was killed by someone other than Sasuke? It's like...uh....okaaaaaaaay....lalalala. Anti-climactic. That won't happen. It's taking away Sasuke's moment. Naruto's moment will come in his final fight with Sasuke.

About Naruto becoming Hokage...I hope he doesn't, but I still want him to be undisputably the strongest character in the series at the end.